Mining equipment, such as large off-road mining trucks and excavators (e.g., shovels, draglines, etc.) can use relatively large AC and/or DC motors to move the equipment and/or to move material. These motors can include propel motors, hoist motors, swing motors, and/or crowd motors. Such motors can be powered by conventional DC or AC electric drive systems. Such systems can include magnetic components, such as transformers, filters, reactors, etc., that can be of a significant size and/or weight.
Mining equipment can derive energy primarily from an internal combustion engine, which can be mechanically coupled to an alternator. The alternator can provide an AC signal, for example, to auxiliary devices. The alternator can provide the AC signal to an electrical system that can have different configurations and concepts. The operating frequency for the auxiliary loads electrically coupled to the alternator can be approximately 60 Hz.
Electrical systems can affect an idle speed of the internal combustion engine of the machine. Meeting auxiliary device power demand sometimes can involve maintaining a minimum engine speed above a level that might otherwise be possible. For example, a conventional drive system can result in an idle speed above approximately 1000 revolutions per minute (RPM) to adequately power the auxiliary devices in large mining trucks. The result of the elevated idle speed can be excessive use of fuel and/or higher maintenance expense of the diesel engine, thereby causing higher operational cost of the truck. Thus, there can be a need for a system and/or method that can efficiently power auxiliary systems.
Machines can utilize high power traction drive systems that can generate significant amounts of heat. As a result, there can be a need for effective cooling systems. Air-cooling can be used on machines where large volumes of air are moved using blowers to cool components such as the inverter power modules and traction motors. Limitations of conventional air-cooling systems can include limited power density and/or relatively large spatial footprints. Therefore, there can be a need for a cooling system that can provide greater power density and/or has a far smaller footprint than conventional air-cooled traction systems.